


L is for Loves

by wisdomofthesea



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II
Genre: 50 Sentences, F/F, F/M, Friendship, Gen, M/M, Multi, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-05
Updated: 2015-03-05
Packaged: 2018-03-16 10:42:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3485234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wisdomofthesea/pseuds/wisdomofthesea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hawke gets by with a little help from - well, all of Kirkwall, really. Fifty sentences about Hawke, Hawke's friends, and Hawke's more-than-friends. All pairings, complete.</p>
            </blockquote>





	L is for Loves

**Author's Note:**

> All of the sentences are unconnected, so pairings and plot choices and Hawke's class and gender may change between sentences (though I tried to have gender ambiguous in most of them). Also, I think there's a one-shot behind almost all of these, so if you're interested, leave a comment to let me know which sentence(s) you'd like explored further, and I'll see what I can do!

**Age  
** Hawke is used to being the eldest and assumes that role in Kirkwall with neither complaint nor fanfare; it’s a given that Varric is older, of course, but Hawke looks entirely _betrayed_ when they do the math and realize that (even allowing for leeway on Fenris) apart from Merrill, Hawke is the _youngest_.

 **Appointment  
** Hawke always tries to make it home for dinner, because Mother still believes in family meals even though there’s just the two of them now.

 **Assist  
** Anders may take most of the credit, and Hawke surely would have been lost without his healing, but it is Lady Elegant—appearing from the crowd of nobility with her bottles of elfroot and lyrium and lifeward—who really keeps Hawke from bleeding out on the Viscount’s floor.

 **Barrier**  
People are talking downstairs, and something about it seems off—too bright, with strange consonants and stunted vowels—Hawke leaves the bedroom to find Orana and Fenris speaking animatedly in Tevene, and wonders what it might be like to understand either of them so well.

 **Bouquet**  
Hawke cannot stand the sight of them anymore, so when fans begin sending flowers to their recuperating Champion, Merrill picks the lilies out of each bunch before Orana can find a vase.

 **Carried**  
Anders diagnoses the pain in Hawke’s shoulder as a pinched nerve and warns against the weight of the armor; Hawke laughs and says “We can’t all wear feathers,” but Anders does not think the Mantle of the Champion is the heaviest burden Hawke bears.

 **Clan**  
Merrill imagines that were she Dalish, Isabela would have _vallaslin_ for Fen’Harel, trickster as she is—strong, solid Aveline would pledge to Mythal—Varric, head full of tales and secrets, must be Dirthamen—Hawke for Andruil, of bravery and the hunt—it is their other mage who gives her pause, and after long moments Merrill decides that Anders is Sylaise but Justice is Elgar’nan, and she thinks that healing and vengeance cannot coexist in one body for long.

 **Confidant**  
Hawke has needs, and visits the Blooming Rose for its intended purpose—but more often than not comes to talk to Jethann, of Ninette and Leandra and lighter things, and the sex (when it happens) is better for the familiarity.

 **Counselor  
** Sebastian keeps his distance while Hawke grieves; he makes the funeral arrangements for all of the women and puts Leandra’s name on the memorial wall—Sebastian knows he would not be comforting, not when the Chant has no explanation for this atrocity.

 **Crew  
** Isabela does not even have the ship when she begins doling out positions on the _Siren’s Call II_ , but it is clear she has thought long and hard on everyone’s future career in piracy; they would be quite the band, with Fenris navigating and Merrill working the rigging and Aveline as quartermaster—Isabela only falters at the galley, until Hawke suggests that they could always bring Orana to cook.

 **Decision  
** They are days out to sea and Hawke has barely said a word, staring over the rails as though still seeing Anders’ body where they had to leave him in Lowtown; Aveline approaches eventually, gloved fingers firm and reassuring on Hawke’s shoulder, and Hawke catches her hand and answers in a voice like broken glass: “ _My_ choice.”

 **Elegy**  
Two weeks after Hawke’s mama is killed, Hawke indicates the lute and asks her if she would mind playing something—Orana would not mind, not one little bit, not when she’s _finally_ been told what she might do to help—Hawke’s sad smile at the music is the smallest victory, but Orana cherishes it.

 **Enigma**  
The little scraps of paper tell a story, eventually—Kirkwall is designed to attract demons, built for blood magic with a weak Veil and architecture intended to confuse—Hawke reads and rereads the notes and thinks of Orsino, and the meaning is more important than the conspiracy: _not my fault, not my fault, not my fault_.

 **Evaporate**  
In bed, Isabela is the second to fall asleep and the first to rise; in battle, Isabela’s favorite move is to shatter a glass vial and disappear in a black cloud; love with her is like trying to catch that smoke in hand.

 **Excess**  
“Anders, there are already five copies in my house, so if that stack of papers is what I _think_ it is, I’m going to put it in the water closet to wipe my ass on.”

 **Flavor  
** Orana learns everyone’s preferences slowly over months of dinner parties—Fenris doesn’t like fish, Merrill loves honey, Isabela wants everything oversalted—Orana is a good cook, so she remembers every detail and packs it in the lunches she sends off with Hawke every morning.

 **Flirt**  
Aveline carries orange marigolds in the ceremony.

 **Fool**  
The instant the duel is arranged, Fenris cannot _believe_ his idiocy—the Arishok wields a battleaxe in one hand and a greatsword in the other, and because of Fenris, Hawke is going to fight him in single combat with two tiny knives.

 **Gem**  
_I fought the Arishok with weapons, not fists; Aveline is happily married and we’ve never slept together; the dragon was at the Bone Pit, not in Darktown; come over for lunch and we can swap all the stories you like_ —bereft of brother and sister, Hawke might well treasure Charade more than Gamlen does.

 **Graphology**  
Fenris presses the quill so hard that his sharp, spiky writing often tears through the page; Orana’s handwriting is pliant curves and small, faint letters, as though it doesn’t want to get in the way—Hawke wonders what the neat, deliberate markings he wrote for them to copy says to others.

 **Grenade**  
Anders hears the darkspawn in his sleep, and though he speaks of children he knows he would not be there to see them grown; Anders is a bomb with an expiration date of twenty years or less now, but he is just selfish enough that he’ll risk Hawke being caught in the blast radius.

 **Guardian  
** Hawke wakes screaming the evening after Leandra’s death, and tries to stay awake afterwards to keep the nightmares away; the next two weeks of dreams are gentle and blissful, and it is not until the tenth night that the realization comes: there is a Somniari in Tevinter looking out for Hawke.

 **Healing**  
With Tomwise and his bottles of Mythal’s Favor at one end, and Anders and his clinic at the other, Hawke finds it hard to fear Darktown.

 **Hint**  
“Daisy looks good in white,” Varric offers, and Hawke agrees, but—“Are you _sure_ it’s not some kind of Dalish bridal thing that I’m just not picking up on?”

 **Itinerary**  
Ever the organizer, Aveline draws up a schedule for the rest of them after Leandra’s death: even if they can’t get their friend to leave the Amell estate, Hawke shouldn’t have to have dinner alone.

 **Jargon  
** Hawke is baffled by the swordplay terminology Aveline casually spouts, holdovers from her service in Cailan’s army; the most technical instruction Hawke can offer when Aveline asks the Champion to give the new group of guardsmen a lesson is “Stick them with the pointy end.”

 **Keepsake**  
Aveline flings out the remark about Wesley’s shield the way Isabela might throw a dagger, spiteful and barbed and meant to wound, so she has no idea what to say when Hawke brings it to her, polished to distract from the dents and scrapes, with an apology the next day: “It’s been in the estate all this time—sorry, I didn’t know it mattered that much to you.”

 **Lesson**  
Hawke is _teasing_ him—the books set out for Fenris to read this week are _A Compleat Genealogy of Tevinter Magisters_ , _The Lonely Little Nug_ , and something of Isabela’s with graphic cover art—Fenris skips the pedigree and the children’s book and goes straight for _Any Port in a Storm_ , and he has never seen Hawke turn so red.

 **Lucky  
** Hawke’s bed is not quite big enough for three, but they manage, Isabela tucked safely in the middle with Zevran’s arm around her waist and Hawke’s forehead brushing against hers; Isabela has never been as happy on land as she is right now.

 **Mercy**  
Varania has heard of Hawke even in Tevinter: the Champion of Kirkwall is tall, and ruthless, and leaves a trail of bodies in their wake—these may all be true, but she sees more gentleness in the Champion than in her once-brother.

 **Misdirection**  
Isabela’s survival relies upon being where people don’t expect to find her, so sauntering into the Keep with the Tome of Koslun on her hip isn’t _that_ out of character.

 **Newcomer  
** Sebastian would never say it, but he’s _terrified_ of his new friends—the _nicest_ one is a blood mage, and they only get scarier from there.

 **Nickname  
** The elf does not think it funny at all, but Hawke falls down from laughing so hard—Sandal had taken one look at Fenris and pronounced him “Shiny!”

 **Oath**  
It is very late and they are all (even Anders) very drunk when Isabela proposes they make a Paragon of the best dwarf they know; they hold a ceremony in his room at the Hanged Man and pledge themselves to House Varric, and Varric is so deep in both his cups and these friendships that he couldn’t possibly refuse the honor.

 **Plea**  
Hawke makes fun of him later (“Of course I wasn’t dead, you _goose!_ ”) but Anders doesn’t care—he’d seen his Champion fall in battle, and it had brought out something in him even stronger than Justice.

 **Prince  
** They watch Kirkwall fade from view off the port side of the _Siren’s Call II_ ; Hawke eventually says “You’re the only good thing that ever came out of that damn city,” and Varric thinks of blood mages and ungrateful Templars and can offer no argument.

 **Quote**  
Hawke leaves a note explaining the situation with Corypheus, saying “I cannot live with a wolf at my back,” and Fenris knows Hawke is right, but he hates having his words thrown back at him like this.

 **Regret**  
Varric sends sunflowers to the Amell Estate on Bethany’s birthday every year—it’s the least he can do to apologize to Leandra for the loss of the Lady Sunshine.

 **Return**  
Aveline notices after her wedding that Hawke doesn’t bring her along as much when they leave Kirkwall; she reminds Hawke that she still has time for them, and Hawke says it’s not that—“I don’t want to have to explain to Donnic one day that you won’t be coming home.”

 **Sacrifice**  
“It’s a shame you couldn’t help us defend the mages, Guard-Captain, but I know you and your husband did good work protecting civilians today,” Hawke says, exaggerated and overriding, as though it is an order rather than a lie; Aveline understands her friend is giving her the chance to stay in Kirkwall, but they entered the city together and Aveline will be damned before she lets Hawke leave it without her.

 **Shield**  
Hawke sees Merrill back-to-back with Carver, and Anders pushing Tal-Vashoth away from himself and Aveline with a wave of telekinetic energy; Hawke feels Fenris at his own back, sword and skin blazing, and thinks there is just something nice about warriors and mages protecting one another.

 **Substitute**  
“Hey, listen—no, shut up, I’m not _that_ drunk—but Varric—Dad and Carver won’t be there so—shh, shhhhh, I’m _talk_ ing—if I ever get married, would—yes, yes, it’s very unlikely, but don’t _laugh_ , though— _if_ I do, you think you could walk me down the aisle?”

 **Teamwork**  
Fenris and Anders never agree on anything, so even though Hawke’s vision is starting to go grey around the edges, both of them bellowing for Hawke to shut up and let the mage do some healing coaxes a smile out of the Champion.

 **Title**  
Maraas refuses to work for Hawke because people like the Champion of Kirkwall have causes, not jobs; Hawke’s only cause is to keep what precious family he has left safe, but he will just have to do that without a Qunari mercenary.

 **Translation**  
Hawke’s injury is being treated by Anders’ glowing hands; the Qunari who had watched the fight but not intervened asks Merrill, “When that one fell, you called—”  
  
“— _ma vhenan_ ,” she finishes, and begins to explain the meaning—  
  
—the Taarbas nods, satisfied, and interrupts: “In Qunlat, it is _kadan_.”

 **Understood  
** The ship is big enough that they all have their own space, but not so big that Hawke can avoid Anders forever; when they talk, Hawke says “I love you—I understand why you did it—but you _lied_ to me, I—I don’t know if I can forgive you,” and Anders says he isn’t asking for forgiveness, and Hawke returns: “You should be.”

 **Unlocked**  
Isabela has a key because Hawke gets tired of her picking the lock; Anders gets the cellar key so he can get out of Darktown quickly; when Fenris ends his walk from the Hanged Man two courtyards early and slams his fist on the door until Bodahn wakes and answers it, Hawke gives in and has a copy made for everyone.

 **Vogue**  
“I mean, I’m some farmer’s kid _nobody_ from Ferelden, and people keep asking who made the armor I was wearing in the fight with the Arishok—well, we definitely won’t say I took it off a mercenary Aveline slashed so hard he damn near exploded.”

 **Wedding  
** “No, thank you, we’re having the Grand Cleric officiate—and of course maid of honor is taken—yes, obviously it’s Hawke—listen, if you don’t tell the story of our courtship, and you promise to wear a dress that covers your knees, I really would like you as a bridesmaid... pirate.”

 **Wing**  
Hawke stands on a precipice of the Wounded Coast, buffeted on every side by the wild wind, the earth solid beneath booted feet and the sky blue and empty and perilously free above—there are obligations back in Kirkwall, Meredith and Orsino quarreling, the repairs from the Qunari revolt, a pile of unopened requests on the desk—but here and now, dragon or not, Hawke feels it would be not just easy but possible to live up to the family name and take flight.


End file.
